Heel-building machine



Feb. 12, 1924.- 1,483,124

R. C. SIMMONS HEEL BUILDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 4, 1918 Sheets-Sheet 1 M- Q N Eeb' 9 N @Ev R C SIMMONS HEEL BUILDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 4, 1918 Feb. 12, 1924; 1,483,124

R. C. SIMMONS HEEL BUILDING MACHINE Fj 'led Nov. 4, 191a 5 Shets-Sheet 5 a; I I 5' Z0 k m Feb. 12, 1924.- 1,483,124

R. C. SIMMONS HEEL BUlLDlNG MACHINE Filed Nov. 4, 1918 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 I l l l I l I l R. C. SIMMONS HEEL BUILDING MACHINE Feb. 12, 1924; 1,483,124

Filed Nov. 4, 1918 5 sheets -s heet 5 Patented Feb. 12, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATET OFFICE.

i RALPH C. SIMMONS, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T UNITED SHOE MA- CHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

HEEL-BUILDING MACHINE.

Application filed November 4, 1918.

To all w ham it may concern Be it known that I, RA PH C. SIMMONS,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Heel-Building Machines, of which the following description, in connec tion with the accompanying drawings, is'a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to heel building machines and, more particularly, to thatclass of machines which are adapted to form a heel or part of a heel from a series of lifts died out of leather, leatherboard or equivalent sheet material.

The vast majority of heels made commercially are built up from lifts assembled manually in a heel shaped cup or form in a machine constructed to drive one or more nails through the lifts to secure them to gether. So-called heel building machines of this type are inexpensive and are simple in construction and operation but, inasmuch as the element of hand labor enters so largely into their use, the amount of work produced by an operative in a day is quite limited and, with increasing wages, the'labor cost has come to be a serious item in the manufacture of heels by this process.

Recently', automatic heel building machinery has been developed, which tremendously increases the speed of production but this machinery is of necessity so complicated in construction, sensitive in operation and expensive to build, that it is economical for use only in large factories where considerable quantities of heels of one size and style are 40 built atone time.

As an outcome of the conditions above outlined, a machine was developed which might be described as semi-automatic, inasmuch as the operations of producing the lifts from thesources of supply, pasting them and collecting them in a heel pile are performed by mechanical means partly actuated by power.

Machines of this type may be constructed at much less expense and are simpler in operation than the completely automatic machine, while at the same time the productive capacity of the operative is largely increased as compared with the ordinary system employing the hand method of assembling the greater increase in the amount of work pro- Serial No. 260,996.

lifts. This machine forms the subject-matter of my copending application for patent Serial No. 219,598, filed Feb. 28, 1918. The present invention is in the nature of a development of, and improvement upon, the machine disclosed in that application.

The object of the present invention is to produce a machine of the general character indicated which shall make possible a still duced by an operative, and at the same time to keep the cost of constructing the machine within reasonable limits and to secure the greatest possible simplicity in operation.

With this object in View, an important 7 feature of the invention consists in the pro- VlSlOIl, in combination with means for producing a series of lifts suflicient to form a heel pile, of a movable carrier upon which the lifts aredeposited simultaneously in a row and which then operates, in a single movement, to deliver the lifts serially to, and assemble them in, a receiver or heel form where they are piled one upon another to form the required heel blank. Both the lift producing mechanism and the carrier may advantageously be operated by power and may be sufficiently automatic in operation not to require attention on the part of the operative. Means is preferably provided for pressing and securing the lifts together in the heel form, and another feature of the invention consists in so organizing this means in relation to the lift carrier that the movement of the carrier is controlled by it, with the consequent advantage that the operative can give her undivided attention to the pressing and securing together of the lifts and the removal of the completed blanks. By relieving the operative of the necessity of attending to the assembling of the lifts, she is enabled, with the same effort, .to produce a considerably increased amount of Work in a given time.

The carrier, upon which the lifts are deton posited, and by which they are collected, is preferably uni-directional and can conveniently take the form of an endless belt arranged to run in a path parallel to a series of magazines, from which the lifts are pro- 10:; duced and deposited upon the belt.

A further feature of the invention relates to the provision of meansfor subjecting the lifts to the action of heat prior to the application of the paste or other adhesive used no and their collection into heel piles. The application of heat is particularly advantageous in a high speed machine of the present type where the heels are produced in rapid succession and have no time in which to dry before being removed from the machine. In accordance with this feature of the invention, means is provided for applying. heat to the lowermost lift of each magazine, each lift being subjected for the maximum length of time to the action of the heat, and being presented immediately after its withdrawal to the pasting means and the collecting means, nosubstantial time being permitted for cooling before the application of the paste and the assembly of the lifts into heel piles.

Other features and advantages of the in vention of greater or less importance will appear in reading the following detailed description of a selected embodiment thereof in connection with the accompanying drawings; in 'which I Figure 1 is a view in front elevation of an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the entire machine;

Fig. 3 is a view partly in end elevation and partly in cross section, illustrating the operating mechanism and means for controlling the same;

Fig. f is a detail view on an enlarged scale of the mechanism for driving and controlling the collecting belt;

Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 show details of the nail supplying mechanism; and

Figs. 10 and 11 show details of the mechanism for operating and controlling the heel form or mold.

At A is shown a so-called heel building machine of a well-known commercial type substantially as disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,056,720, granted March 18 1913, upon the application of Eliphalet A. Tripp, to which patent reference may be had for details of its construction and mode of operation.

The lifts to be used in building heels are contained in column formation in a series of magazines 10 arranged in a row and-suitably supported on brackets 12 mounted upon the frame 14. The lifts are produced from the magazines in successive series, each series containing sufficient lifts for a single heel blank, by reciprocating pushers 16 arranged to engage the lowermost lift in each magazine and at the proper time to push it out and deposit it upon the endless belt carrier 18. The pushers 16 are all adjustably secured to a pusher bar 20 by bolt and slot connections 22 and the magazine sections are also supported directly by a bar 24, to which they are adjustably secured by bolt and slot connections 26. Thisarrangement permits adjustment of the lift holding and producing mechanism to lifts of all sizes and shapes.

The pusher bar 20 is mounted for reciprocating sliding movement forwardly and rearwardly of the machine, one end being provided with a bearing 28 sliding upon a stationary guide rod 30, and the other end resting loosely upon a smooth, horizontal plate 32. The bearing 28 is connected by a link 84 to a bell crank lever 36 movable about a stationary pivot 38 and having an integral arm 40, which is connected by a link 42 to a crank pin 44: upon a cam disk &6 secured to the main driving shaft 48 of the machine A. It being understood that the shaft 48 is controlled by a one-revolution clutch and turns through a single rotation in one operation of the machine, it will be apparent that during that time the pusher bar 20 will, through the connections just described, be moved forward to produce a row of lifts from the magazines and then backward, coming to rest at its initial position, shown in Fig. 3.

The endless belt conveyor 18 is supported adjacent to the heel form 50 by passing over an idle roll 52 mounted to rotate freely in a bracket 54 and at the opposite end of the machine by a pulley 56 secured to a shaft 58. Rotary movement is imparted to the shaft 58 by mechanism which will now be described. A shaft 60 extending along the back of the machine carries a pulley 62 driven by a belt 6 L passing around the continuously running driving pulley 66 of the machine A. Secured to the end of the shaft 60 opposite the pulley 62 is a helical gear 68 meshing with a gear 70 mounted to rotate freely upon the shaft 58. A clutch collar 72 having a peripheral groove 74 is also loosely mounted upon the shaft 58 and is provided with a pair of pins 76 passing through correspondingholes in the gear 70. Pinned or otherwise secured to the end of the shaft 58 is a collar 78 in which is secured a pair of pins 80 at the same radial distance from the axis of the shaft 58 as the pins '76. The pins 80 project inwardly from the face of the collar 7 8. 1

A clutch shifting fork 82 is secured to the end of a rock shaft 84 and is provided with anti-friction rolls 86 located in the groove 74. The rock shaft- Sel has secured near its opposite end an arm 88, in the upper end of which isan adjustable screw 90 a ranged to be engaged by the presser beam 92 of the machine A when the said presser beam is allowed to fall back. A pull spring 94 connected to the fork 82 tends to rock the fork forwardly, shifting the clutch collar 7 2 and withdrawing the pins 76 from engagement with the pins 80. It will be apparent that the gear 70 is driven continuously and that when the presser beam 92 is allowed to fallback into engagement with the screw 90, the rock shaft 84 and the fork 82 will be rocked and the pins 7 6 will be caused to project from the face of the gear and in their rotation to engage the pins 80, thus establishing a positive driving connection between the shaft 60 and the shaft 58. When this occurs, the collecting belt 18 will be set in motion and will continue to move as long as the presser beam 92 is back. Immediately upon the beam 92 being drawn forward by the operative the clutch 76, will be released by the spring 94 and movement of the collecting belt will cease. On the forward end of the shaft 58 is a pulley 98 connected by a belt 100 to a pulley 102 which is secured to the shaft 104 of a paste roll 106 located immediately above the belt 18 and in the path of lifts being advanced by said belt toward the heel form 50. The shaft 104 is geared to the shaft 108 of a paste supply roll 110 which runs in a paste tank 112 and supplies paste to the roll 106 with which it runs in contact.

The heel form 50 comprises a pair of jaws Y 114, 116 mounted for relative sliding move ment toward and from each other. The jaw 114 is secured to a rod 118 extending rearwardly and passing'through an opening 120 in the frame of the machine A. A spring 122 surrounding the rear end of the rod tends to draw it backward until it is stopped by the engagement of an adjustable nut 124 upon the rod with the said frame. A yoke 126. adjustably secured to the rod lies in the path of the beam 92 when the latter is drawn forward.

The base of the jaw 116 is provided with a screw 128 engaged by the forked end of a lever 130 movable about a stationary pivot 132 and connected at its opposite end by a pivotal connection 134 to a bar 136, the rear end of which is rigidly secured to the jaw member 114, as shown in Fig. 10. The connection between the two jaw members is such that they are constrained to move equally and oppositely toward or from each other, as the case may be. Consequently, when the presser beam 92 is permitted to fall back, the spring 122 will operate to open the heel form to its fullest extent, while the drawing forward of the beam will, by engagement with the yoke 126, cause the jaws to be closed upon the heel pile, which it is assumed has been deposited in the form.

The bottom of the heel form is provided with nail holes through which one or more heel building nails may be driven to secure the lifts together. The nail drivers 142 are mounted in a driver block 144 having a slidable connection with a driver head 146 similar to that shown in the Tripp patent previously mentioned. The nail block 148, which is provided with nail passages 150 and a guide passage 152 for a guide rod 154, also secured in the driver block, is

mounted to slide forwardly and rearwardly in a guideway 156 formed in the lower face of the lift support.

To the front end of the nail block 148 is secured a cross bar 158 which connects the nail block rigidly to a reciprocable rod 160 which is, in turn, connected by a link 162 to a cam lever 164 pivoted to the machine frame at 166. A cam roll 168 upon the lever This occurs just prior to the actuation of the drivers to drive the nail or nails into the heel. 'While the drivers are beingretracted the lever 164 swings backward, drawing the nail block and driver block with it until the nail passages 150 are in alinement with the tubes 174 which conduct the nails from the nail loader B.

The loader B may be of any suitable or desired type adapted to receive nails in bulk and deliver them in orderly arrangement to the raceways 17 6 from which they are delivered head downward by the nail guides 1'? 8 in the manner shown in Fig. 8. The nail loader is driven by a belt from the shaft 60 and the delivery of nails from the race:

ways 176 is controlled by a sliding separator 182 connected by a link-184to an arm 186 movable about a stationary pivot 188. A spring 190 tends always to move the separator toward the left, as viewed in Figs. 5,

6 and 7. A cam member 192 adjustably con nected to the separator arm 186 has an operative face 194, arranged to be engaged by a cam roll 196 upon the upper end of a rod 198 mounted in, and projecting upwardly from, the presser beam. The construction and arrangement is such that when the presser beam is allowed to fall back, the lowermost nail is separated from each raceway and delivered to the guides 178, from which the nails pass through the tubes 174 and enter the passages 150 in the nail block, which is, at this time, in register with said tubes.

Referring now to Fig. 3 the base member, upon which the lifts are supported in the magazines, is perforated, as shown at 200,

and a heating element 202 enclosed in a casing 204 is located immediately beneath the perforated member. The heating element 202' is preferably in the form of an electrical heating unit, although steam or any other suitable source of heat may be employed. The heat from theunit 202 is transmitted to the perforated base member and to the lifts,

resting upon it. Of course, the lowermost lift in the magazine at any given time is most affected by the heat but more or less heating of the lifts immediately above the lowermost lift takes place and, in effect, they are heated progressively as they proceed downward in the magazine. By properly regulating the temperature of the element 202, the lifts may be heated to any desired degree by the time they are ejected from the magazine upon the collectingbelt. I have found by experiment that this heating of the lifts just prior to the application of paste effects a materially improved result from the action of the adhesive.

The operation of the machine is as follows: Assuming a supply of lifts to have been placed in the magazines 10, a heel pile to have been deposited in the form 50, and the presser beam to be in its rearmost position, the clutch 76, 80 will be engaged and the collecting belt 18 running, the operative seizes the handle 206 and draws the presser beam forward. By this act, the form jaws are closed upon the heel, the machine A -is started and the shaft 48 turns through one revolution. In the rotation of the driving shaft 48, the nail block let-S, containing the previously deposited nails, is drawn forward into register with the holes 140, the beam 92 is caused to descend to apply pressure to the heel pile in the form, and immediately upon the application of such pressure the drivers are actuated to drive the nail or nails through the'lifts.

At the beginning of the forward movement of the presser beam the release of the arm 88 permits the clutch 76, 80 to be disconnected, thus stopping the movement of the collecting belt 18. In the rotation of the driving shaft 48, the pusher bar 20 is moved forward, producing a series of warmed or heated lifts and depositing them in a row upon the now stationary collecting belt. When the shaft as comes to rest, the presser has been elevated, the pushers withdrawn to the position shown in Fig. 3, the drivers retracted, and the nail block moved back into register with the tubes 174, which conduct the nails from the nail loader. The operative now permits the presser beam to fall back, during which operation the form jaws are opened and finally the separator 182 is actuated to deliver nails to the tubes 17 i, and the clutch 76, 80 is engaged to start themovement of the collecting belt 18.

Before allowing the presser beam to fall all the way back, the operative removes the finished heel pile from the form. leaving the form empty for the reception of the next series of lifts which are deposited in it immediately upon the starting of the collecting belt. When the collecting belt is started, as described, the lifts deposited upon it while it was at rest are advancedvin rapid succession under the paste roll 106, which applies paste to their upper faces, and are immediately deposited one upon another in the heel form ready for the operation of the machine A.

lVhen paste is being used the extreme lefthand magazine shown in the drawings will not be utilized but when a so-called dry heel is being built, that is, a heel without paste, the paste roll is removed and the full length of the member 24 may then be used for supporting magazines.

It will be apparent that, without the use of prohibitively complicated and expensive mechanism, I have provided an organized mechanism for building heels, heel piles or heel blanks which is capable of very rapid operation and large production. The sole duty of the operative is to draw the presser beam 92 forward to start the machine A for each blank operated upon and to remove the blank from the heel form after the operation. No attention upon her part is required to the selection and assembling of the lifts as long as the supply of lifts in the magazines is maintained, nor to the handling of the heel building nails.

The terms heel, heel pile and heel blank are used throughout the specification and claims to denote a pile of lifts assembled in proper relation to form either a complete heel or a multi-lift section or deck suitable for assembly with other lifts to form a complete heel.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a heel building machine, the combination of a movable lift assembling carrier. means for producing a series of lifts and depositing them in a dispersed row upon the carrier, and means for actuating the carrier in a single movement to assemble the lifts in the form of a heel pile.

2. In a heel building machine, the combination of a lift collecting carrier, means for imparting intermittent movement to the carrier, and means for producing at each pause in the movement of the carrier a series of lifts and depositing them in a row upon the carrier.

3. In a heel building machine, the combination of a lift collecting carrier, means for producing and depositing'a series of lifts in a dispersed row upon the carrier, and means for imparting step by step movement to the carrier, each step in such movement being equal in extent at least to the length of the row of lifts.

4. In a heel building machine, the combination of a non-reciprocable lift collecting carrier, means for depositing a series of lifts in a. row upon the carrier, a heel form in blank receiving relation to the carrier, and means for moving the carrier continuously through a distance sufiicient to deliver the entire series of lifts from the carrier to the form.

5. In a heel building machine, the combination of an endless lift assemblin carrier, means for depositing a series of li ts in dispersed relation upon the carrier, a heel form adjacent to the carrier, and means for actuating the carrier to deliver the lifts serially to, and assemble them in, the form.

6. In a heel building machine, the combination of means for engaging and pressing together a pile of heel lifts, and mechanism under the control of said means for collecting a series of lifts and assembling them into a pile.

7. In a heel building machine, the combination of manually controlled means for engaging and pressing together a pile of heel lifts, and mechanism under the control of said means for collecting a series of lifts and assembling them into a pile.

8. In a heel building machine, the combination of means for engaging and pressing together a pile of heel lifts, and mechanism under the control of said means for producing and assembling a series of lifts in a heel 1 e. p 9. In a heel building machine, the combination of a lift receiving form, means for pressing and securing together lifts in said form, an endless belt lift collector movable under the control of said means, and constructed and arranged to deliver a series of lifts to the form, and means for producing a series of lifts and depositing-them in a row upon the collector.

10. In a lift assembling machine, the combination of means for supporting a series of stacks of heel lifts, means for applying heat to the endmost lift of each stack, a paste roll, and means for producing the heated lifts from the stacks, advancing them past the paste roll, and collecting them into a heel pile.

11. In a heel building machine, the combination of a heel form, means for engaging and pressing a heel pile in the form, a nail block movable from a nail receiving position to a position in register with the heel form, and power means under the control of the heel engaging means for effecting such movement of the nail block and thereafter driving the nail from the block into a heel pile in the form.

12. In a heel building machine, the combination of a heel form, means for engaging and pressing a heel pile in the form, a nail block movable from nail receiving position to a position in register with the form, and power means under the control of the heel engaging means for effecting such movement of the nail block.

13. In a heel building machine, the combination of nail supplying means, a heel form, means for engaging and pressing a heel pile in the form, a nail block movable alternately into register with the nail supplying means and the heel form, and power means under the control of the heel engaging means for effecting such movement.

14. In a heel building machine, the combination of means for applying pressure to a heel pile, nail supplying means, a movable nail block, power means for moving the nail block alternately into register with the nail supplying means and the heel pile and means under the control of the pressing means for delivering nails to the nail block when it is in register with the nail supplymg means.

15. In a heel building machine, the combination of a heel form, nail supplying means, means for pressing a heel in the form, a nail block movable alternately into register with the heel form and the nail supplying means, and power means under the control of the pressing means for effecting such movement of the nail block and delivering nails to it when it is in register with the nail supplying means.

16. In a heel building machine, the combination of a series of lift holding magazines, an intermittently moving endless carrier, means for simultaneously producing a row of lifts from the magazines and depositing them on the carrier, and a heel form in which the lifts are assembled by the carrier.

17 In a heel building machine, the combination of a row of lift magazines, an intermittently moving endless carrier, means for simultaneously producing a row of lifts from the magazines and depositing them on the carrier, and a heel form in alinement with the carrier and closely adjacent to the end thereof.

18. In a heel building machine, the combination of a plurality of lift holding magazines, an intermittently moving endless carrier, means for simultaneously producing a plurality of lifts from the magazines in a direction transverse to the path of movement of the carrier and depositing them upon the carrier, and means in co-operative relation to the carrier for nailing the lifts together.

19. In a heel building machine, the combination of a plurality of lift holding magazines, an intermittently moving endless, flexible carrier, means for simultaneously producing a' plurality of lifts from the magazines and depositing them upon the carrier, and means in co-operative relation to the carrier for nailing the lifts together.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

RALPH C. SIMMONS. 

